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PARIS – It has been reported that Nicolas Sarkozy, fighting for a second term as French president, is promising to cut €40 billion ($52 billion) in public spending and raise €13.5 billion ($17.6 billion) in new taxes in the coming years. Sarkozy, a conservative, says balancing the budget by 2016 is “an absolute imperative.” He [...]

ATHENS, Greece – Greek tax officials walked off the job Thursday at the start of a 48-hour strike to protest salary cuts and other austerity measures, as the government struggles to meet revenue targets demanded by the country’s international creditors. Tax offices shut down for the last two working days of the year, prompting hundreds [...]

JERUSALEM – The U.N.’s cultural agency said Friday it is pulling funding for a Palestinian youth magazine that published an article suggesting admiration for Hitler. The magazine, Zayzafouna, published an article in February written by a teenage girl who presented four role models: a medieval Persian mathematician, a modern Egyptian novelist, the Muslim warrior Saladin [...]

LONDON – The three intense nights of violence in England have put British premier David Cameron under growing pressure over his policing cuts “in the wake of the deaths of three young Birmingham men”, reports guardian.co.uk. The Police Federation warned that if Mr. Cameron’s £2 billion cuts were introduced a “catastrophe” far greater than the [...]

WASHINGTON – In a press conference held late Sunday, President Barack Obama said a deal on federal spending budget cuts has been reached, reports The New York Times. The deal consists of cuts worth trillions of dollars over a ten year period coupled with an increase in the government’s borrowing limit. The compromise would be debated [...]

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and House Republican leaders reached anew for an elusive deal to cut deficits by $4 trillion or more and prevent a threatened government default in less than two weeks, officials said. House Speaker John Boehner declared Thursday that his rank and file generally stood ready to compromise in order to [...]

WASHINGTON – Congress is working on dual tracks and racing against the clock to raise the nation’s debt ceiling while President Barack Obama appeals directly to the public in hopes of influencing a deficit reduction deal that failed to materialize during talks he led at the White House. “We have to ask everyone to play [...]

WASHINGTON- President Barack Obama and Senate-Democrats are thinking about implementing a scaled-back U.S. budget deal that would delay “the country’s borrowing needs for seven months”, reports cnbc.com. The Congress is in need to raise its $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by August 2 to avoid a default that would plunge the U.S. back into recession. The [...]

LONDON- British teachers and public service workers swapped classrooms and offices for picket lines Thursday as hundreds of thousands walked off the job to protest pension cuts. Airport operators warned of long lines at immigration entry points because of walkouts by passport officers, but most of Britain’s airports, including Heathrow and Manchester, said it was business [...]

WASHINGTON- There’s a growing sense of urgency for the group to pick up the pace and start making the politically difficult trade-offs required to generate deficit savings in the trillions of dollars rather than in billions. The game plan is for the Biden-led group to reach a tentative pact by Congress’ July 4 recess. Negotiators [...]